Don't Get Duped Into Buying Live Wallpaper - It Doesn't Make Your Device Look Any Cooler

It seems like only yesterday when we warned you about a ripoff app that somehow snagged a coveted spot in the App Store’s top paid iPhone apps chart. Oh, wait. It is only yesterday. The good news is that the app, which went by the highly original name of Temple Hunt!, has been pulled from the App Store. (And I say, “Good riddance!”) The bad news is that there are still plenty of ill-intentioned apps in the App Store, lurking in the darkness and preying on unsuspecting customers. One such app is Live Wallpaper – Your Device Never Looked Cooler.

“If you’re jealous of your Android-wielding friends because their lock screens are animated and yours isn’t,” teases the app description of Live Wallpaper in the App Store, “then look no further: Live Wallpaper is here.” That right there is the proverbial writing on the wall. When an app promises to superimpose on a basic function of iOS, like animating the otherwise static lock screen wallpaper in this case, you better be on your toes. The concept can be seductive, but it’s highly unlikely. Needless to say: Buyers beware!

Live Wallpaper has been featured as "New" in the App Store's Entertainment category.

One of the many customers who have found out about Live Wallpaper’s fraudulent nature is Sean, one of our readers from Australia. Sean was helpful enough to alert us of the ongoing scam via email. According to him, the $0.99 app “claims to animate your lock screen, but does nothing, is pixelated and has no help functions or support.” The more than 50 five-star reviews it has so far garnered do little but invite suspicion as to their validity. That they are outnumbered nearly two to one by one-star reviews from customers like Sean only stresses the app’s deception.

That Live Wallpaper managed to enter the App Store is further proof of Apple’s less than ideal App Store approval process of late. While we admittedly can’t influence how Apple goes about the approval process in a direct and immediate manner, we can always practice constant vigilance in our app purchasing habits. We must be on the watch for the writing on the wallpaper, live or otherwise.